A COBRE award to the College of Veterinary Medicine (CVM) at KU will provide the resources necessary to elevate the research programs of junior basic researchers and clinician-scientists at this and other Kansas institutions to become successful at obtaining independent NIH funding. Seven teams of junior faculty members and mentors in the KU CVM and collaborating departments at KU and at KUMC have been identified as qualified to initiate this program. Statewide competition will identify additional junior faculty and their mentors in the later years of the award. All of the identified programs center on epithelial cell physiology or pathophysiology and provide a strong foundation for translational research. To enhance programmatic success 3 core facilities will be established: 1) a state-of-the-art confocal microscope facility, 2) gene array analysis station and 3) an epithelial electrophysiology facility. All efforts and expenditures will be guided by the ultimate goal of moving the junior faculty to the level of independent NIH-funded investigator as rapidly as possible. To this end, the project leader of this COBRE along with the other mentors and advisory committee members will create and participate in a structured program of interdisciplinary interactions in video-conferenced seminars and intensive individual l guidance. Accountability of mentors and junior faculty for their areas of responsibility will be assured by the administrative processes. The success of the proposed program is predicted by the scientific merit of the projects, the research strength of the individual investigators, the enthusiastic commitment of junior and senior faculty to the goals of the mentoring program and enhancement of comparative biomedical research at the CVM The administration at the CVM at KU is highly supportive of its research and clinical faculty, but this COBRE award will provide the financial means and the structured program to realize fully the "promise" of its talented junior faculty.